User talk:BanyanTree/Archive3

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[edit] Thank you

Thank you for supporting my adminship — I vow to use my super powers for good not evil. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:34, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Images and media for deletion votes

I am contacting people who previously helped to vote to delete a generally objectionable photograph by a vote of 88 to 21, and who might be unaware that immediately after that image was voted to be deleted someone posted another which was very similar in content. My objections to this, and the previous image that was voted to be deleted might be based upon reasons far different from any that you have, but I do object to it, and consider the posting of such images to be acts of asinine stupidity, which burdens the project and its major educational aims in ways that they should not be burdened, and can be extremely detrimental to the acceptance and growth of WIkipedia's use and influence. Thus far those who I believe to be in the extreme minority of Wikipedians who would like to include these images, many who have been channeled to the voting page from the article with which it is associated have dominated the voting, 23 to 12 (as of the time that I composed this message). I would like to be somewhat instrumental in shedding a bit more light upon the issue, and if possible, helping to turn the tide against its inclusion. It might also be necessary to begin making an effort to establish an explicit Wikipedia policy against explicite photographic depictions of humans engaged in erotic, auto-erotic, or quasi-erotic activities. To my limited knowledge such images have not been accepted as appropriate anywhere else within this project, and frankly I can agree with those who are casually labeled prudes for opposing their inclusion, that they should not be. Vitally important information that might be unwelcome by some is one thing that should never be deleted, but un-needed images that can eventually prevent or impede many thousands or millions of people from gaining access to the great mass of truly important information that Wikipedia provides is quite another matter. There are vitally important distinctions to be made. Whatever your reasons, or final decisions upon the matter, I am appealing for more input on the voting that is occurring at Wikipedia:Images_and_media_for_deletion. ~ Achilles † 01:19, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] CSB open task

I thought you may have some insight on this is the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council of Sierra Leone a differnet entity to the Revolutionary United Front? Internet sources seem to almost exclusively use RUF.--nixie 11:26, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I'm not as familiar with West Africa but according to this, they are different. The AFRC was the former government military, which carried out a coup against the government in 1997, while it was fighting the RUF. The RUF and AFRC then seemed to almost merge before ECOWAS invaded in 98. But there a clearly different origins. I didn't know this before, but it looks like the AFRC was the dominant partner, so maybe the post-1998 mention of "RUF forces" is inaccurate and should be "AFRC forces", though I'd check a few more sources before making such a claim. Fascinating stuff... - BanyanTree 15:45, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Please see my remark on Template talk:WikiProjectCSBTasks explaining the Pullman Company thing. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:04, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mende

Dear BanyanTree, may I ask your judgement regarding Mende tribe (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) and Mende language (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs). I have been arguing against the misinformed and unsubstantiated statements added to both articles by User:Roylee. Roylee answered to my question on his talk and on Talk:Mende language by simply reverting back to his previous version. I don't want to turn this into an overheated argument so I'm stepping back from it for today, after having carefully explained my position and actions. If you have the time, could you take a look at the situation and maybe try to explain policies like Cite sources, Verifiability, Reliable sources, Weasel words, etc. to Roylee? Besides you, I have also asked User:Garzo and User:Mustafaa to tune in, hoping to bring reason to these articles. Thanks! — mark ✎ 15:15, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  • Hi mark, I took a look and agree with you. But, as Roylee hasn't made any edits since, I've watchlisted both of the above pages and will see if he continues his pattern of edits before jumping in. Cheers, BanyanTree 18:07, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • Thanks a lot! There is more to it. If you feel like digging into a web of crackpot and fringe theories being edited into Wikipedia in a self-supporting way, I invite you to take a look at his other contributions and at my most recent remark on his talk page. Mende people in the Americas (before the Transatlantic slave trade), shipbuilding in the Sahara, a relation between the Mende of Sierra Leone and the Mende langauge of Papua New Guinea... it seems that this page contains all those outlandish claims. What worries me most is that he seems to edit articles that are not watched very closely; many of his unsubstantiated additions have not been called into doubt simply because he is the last editor. I don't like it at all. — mark ✎ 18:20, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
      • I think I saw something about Mende being derived from British English, which may be the most amusing tidbit. I suspect that 68.187.160.141 was Roylee (talk • contribs) throwing a fit after his pet theories got taken out. I don't see how else someone would stumble across Mende language so conveniently. In any case, I'll keep an eye out; be sure to let me know if there is anything I can do. - BanyanTree 19:01, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
        • An anon just deleted the difficult questions from his talk page (diff). What a coincidence for this particular talk page to be vandalized just now! — mark ✎ 21:09, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
          • <deadpan>Almost miraculous.</deadpan> - BanyanTree 21:13, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I just reverted/removed some new contribs, notably to Shipbuilding (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs). Some of the changes are quite subtle, aren't they? - and he mixes them with what appear to be good edits. - BanyanTree 23:12, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I did some more digging and am now pretty disturbed as well. I have asked others to check out his edits going back to December on Wikipedia:RC patrol. I was on the point of going a bit revert crazy but, as you say, I really don't have the slightest idea which are valid edits and which aren't. Did you notice he blanked my challenge as well? This is certainly interesting... - BanyanTree 01:32, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for looking into it and for posting it at RC patrol! I've been busy removing lots of bosh unsubstantiated statements from Maritime archeology, carefully placing it on its talk page, listing problems and violated policies and guidelines... but there is much more and I'm losing courage (and patience). I hope the RC patrol listing will bring in other editors to examine his edits and take appropriate action.
You know, things like this really touch Wikipedia in its weakest spot. They drain the resources of polite and patient editors who instead of checking and removing pseudofacts should be contributing quality content. It is very disturbing. I'm inclined to simply revert everything without checking; this should simply be a case of 'showing the door to trolls'. In fact, if no-one is going to give a very good argument against it, I will do it. What are your thoughts? — mark ✎ 22:07, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I am similarly inclined. I reverted one of the Moroccan towns he edited without checking the actual info, but then decided that I should run it by someone to make sure I wasn't paranoid, which is why I put it on RC patrol. If you want to go ahead, perhaps with a edit summary explaining the situation and inviting reverts from legit users if the info is actually good, I'd be the first to applaud. - BanyanTree 22:15, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
OK. Please review this and feel free to edit as you see fit. I'm planning to revert everything somewhere this weekend, linking to this explanation in my edit summary. But probably I'm taking things too seriously now (it's late and I'm annoyed), so I'm going to sleep upon it. Tell me what you think. — mark ✎ 23:53, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Whatever. Let it go. I'm really annoyed. Don't be surprised if I don't check in tomorrow, it already has cost me too much of my time. I'm stupid. Have a nice weekend. — mark ✎ 23:57, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Wow, you are so much more of a thorough editor than I. I was thinking of an edit summary like "Roylee has been placing information on fringe theories into Wikipedia, which is now being removed wholesale. Please revert this edit if the information in this case was actually valid." It's definitely not worth getting stressed over. Let a couple more eyes take a look at it from the note on RC patrol and work on it when you want to. I'll probably start taking on a bit sometime this weekend, but right now I need to go out and eat Salvadoran with friends. Hmmm... yummy. Take care, BanyanTree 00:07, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I knew I was carrying it too far. I'm very stressed in real life, and I should take a (short) wikivacation to get some far more important things done. Sorry for letting steam off on your talk page. See you around! Regards, — mark ✎ 07:46, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Trying to make it into something useful: link. — mark ✎ 17:51, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Not on your break yet? ;) Looks good. If you intend to refer people to it, a little explanation would be useful - either your text above or my RC notice would work with minimal tweaking. I don't even know why you're bothering to move questionable content to talk pages. It's available in the history and this has certainly progressed beyond the stage of polite notices, though I suppose that it might make more people aware of Roylee's pattern of edits. I've begun taken the stance that unless the edit is obviously innocuous, it should be reverted - and let another user revert it back if the info was good. Mirv notes on RC patrol some other questionable edits that I wasn't aware of. It might be worth linking to your subpage from RC patrol so people can add more questionable articles. - BanyanTree 18:16, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Your suggestions are good, feel free to carry them through. I am on my break :). (<cough> caught myself looking at Wikipedia again). — mark ✎ 19:01, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
BTW, did you see what he says here? — mark ✎ 19:03, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] On 207.97.185.102

Sorry about his destruction. He happens to be a co-worker. All edited pages by the person from seth up are blankings --SgeoTC 18:39, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)

Well it's all reverted now, and he's on a 24 hour block. Thanks for trying to revert him. If he goes on a spree again, please drop a line into WP:VIP. Thanks, BanyanTree 18:56, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • This person has been vandalising many user pages with sexual words which was so offensive to me. Thank goodness for the block. (comment by User:Thorpe)

[edit] Falling Up (band)

You may not be aware of this, but there's an undeletion discussion about this article that you recently speedied. Your input would be appreciated; was the article actually a copy of the one that had gone through VFD? Thanks. --SPUI (talk) 22:33, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks again for the quick response. --SPUI (talk) 23:03, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Thank you for notifying me of the vote. Once I realized they were different articles it seemed excessive to wait for any further procedural niceties. Thanks again, BanyanTree 23:09, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I have redeleted it and relisted it on VfU. It is completely inappropriate to delete a VfU discussion and undelete the article after merely one day on VfU. RickK 04:32, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)

I understand that you may not want to get involved, and if so, I apologize. However, I urge you to make an effort to resolve this with RickK. I feel RickK has been constantly going against deletion and undeletion policy, and something has to be done about it. I am working on an RFC, and if you could attempt to resolve the situation, we'd have another person who has tried and failed to resolve the dispute (unless RickK reverses, which might also be a good thing). --SPUI (talk) 12:03, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Jeph Jacques

These are actual quotes, taken from the newsposts on www.questionablecontent.com and the forums on the same server.-- User:24.167.75.24

Ah... Then I apologize for my impolite revert. Given the content, you might want to make that clearer, perhaps by adding in-line external references, to keep other users from assuming vandalism as well. Also, notable quotes are normally migrated over to Wikiquote, so it may be worth doing that at the outset and adding one of the neat Wikiquote boxes at the bottom of the page. Finally, since you seem to be familiar with wiki, why not get a username? Happy editing, BanyanTree 00:40, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikistress

BanyanTree, I detect a little wikistress in your time as Admin, and invite you back to article-space as a holiday :-) Wizzy…☎ 06:42, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)

Ha! Only a little? The things being discussed on this page are absolutely insane - article deletions, undeletions, rollbacks and IP blocks. O, for those idyllic days of yore when all I had was the comforting presence of East African rebel groups and low-intensity conflicts! You're probably right; I'll see if I can avoid the temptation to click on RC, and see what my neglected work page says I should be doing. Thanks for dropping by! - BanyanTree 15:41, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Uganda districts template

Much better! Template:Uganda districts looks fab now. I'm going to set up seperate NAME (district) articles for Gulu, Jinja, Kampala, Lira and Mbale as the cities/towns themselves merit articles distinct from their corresponding districts. TreveX 13:51, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] My adminship: thanks!

Hi BanyanTree. Thanks very much for your vote for my RfA. I promise to be prudent, wise, sagacious and totally unilateral in all my admin affairs. I should say that I am very pleased at the number of people who supported me – it's very nice to know I'm making a positive impact. Cheers again, Smoddy (Rabbit and pork) 21:15, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Rassemblement Démocratique pour le Rwandaness

(pasted from gren's talk page) Hi, I noticed you changing the link text for Army for the Liberation of Rwanda back into the original French. Wikipedia convention is that articles should have the commonly used English version of a name, if there is one. I had to move about four articles I had made on Congolese rebel groups when this was originally pointed out to me. The RDR seems to be the only group that hasn't attracted a consistent English transliteration. At some point I will get around to starting the AliR article and will note its original French name in the text before making sure that the links to it in other articles are English, unless someone beats me to it. It's obviously not a big deal, especially since the article isn't made yet, but I thought I'd let you know beforehand. Cheers, BanyanTree 03:52, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

We use the official name no? we use Al-Qaeda not "the base"... so, we should give the English transliteration of the official name non? gren 06:04, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Actually, Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English) seems pretty clear. Unless the foreign language version is the standard, the title of the article must be in English. Certainly, al-Qaeda is much more common than the Foundation, but nobody uses the Kinyarwanda version of Rwandan Genocide, even though it's arguably the "correct" version. Cheers, BanyanTree 16:16, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] AIDS in Africa

As has been pointed out on the CSB open tasks page, the AIDS in Africa article is an absolute scandal! For an issue of such vital importance affecting so many millions of people, this article is quite poor. I'm up for having a good go at it and I know you're interested in these types of articles. Just wondered if you knew any other Wikipedians who would be keen on an unofficial improvement drive on this?

I've also taken the liberty of putting it at the top of the 'expand' open task template for CSB project. TreveX 15:45, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi Trevex,
I'm sorry to say that I don't know of any ready-made group that might jump in. If you want to raise its profile, I would make sure that it is on the open tasks for Wikipedia:Africa-related regional notice board, and list it at the general requests for expansion. I don't think that there's a medical wikiproject. Another tactic would be to nominate it to Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive and put notices of this nomination on the noticeboards for both CSB and the Africa eboard. CSB articles tend to have a tough time in general votes, but it would at least expose it to a wider variety of users.
On an entirely different topic, I have put up a notice for the creation of Uganda-geo-stub, which will probably actually be Ug-geo-stub (because I don't have the energy to type "anda"), at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Criteria#Africa-geo-stub split-up. So there will soon be a replacement for the two AfricaE-geo-stubs and Uganda-stubs on all your new district articles. Cheers, BanyanTree 04:55, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Falling Up (band)

You may wish to see the discussion here. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 00:14, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

Hello, BanyanTree. Thanks for your vote at my adminship nomination. I appreciate the support and look forward to working with you. Cheers! — Trilobite (Talk) 13:35, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Stunning" rm'd from front page

Good call; well spotted. Let's save "stunning" for... oh, I don't know, the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear kind of stuff. Cheers, –Hajor 14:04, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Yo

I said it before, but I'll say it again... really strange I'd run into another admin on AA. What makes it even weirder is that it's the first time I've played in almost a year. I stopped playing back when one of the upgrades came out that caused everyone's client to crash when they were killed and tried to view other players. I've been playing the PS2 game Mercenaries a lot recently and it made me want to get back into AA. I was actually dreading having to go through all that training again, but luckily my account was still active. Anyway, hope I see you on again sometime and hopefully I won't be in such a spot as to increase your ROE :/ CryptoDerk 06:47, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

First for me too, unless there are some users with different names. I've only had an account about six months, most of that stuck in 2.1 after all the non-Mac people switched to 2.3, and just started playing again two weeks ago when I saw the upgrade was out. Yeah, last night I felt like I should be in opfor for a while there. I had been out on the town for seven hours and thought I'd get a game in before crashing. Hopefully I'll run into you again, with unimpaired skills.  ;) - BanyanTree 16:05, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] axis mundi

hi banyan tree, I just put up a stub for axis mundi after getting over the initial shock of its absence in the wikipedia, and figured i'd drop you a note after looking at the "what links here" and seeing your plan for the entry. Its not very in depth, you might want to look at it. my own personal feeling is that the page should be "axis mundi" and not "world axis"; i don't think world axis is commonly used- but i'd certainly be willing to discuss that. I will add more to the page but only had time to put up a stub at the moment. --Heah 22:45, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Hi Heah! Wow, axis mundi looks great. Thank goodness somebody got around to adding it! I was truly shocked as well, even though I normally don't edit in that area. I added a redirect from world axis. I agree that axis mundi is probably more common (and sounds cooler) but I have a habit of using the English version of everything possible. "Axis mundi" is such a dominant usage that I'm certainly not going to fuss about it.
I'll see what I can dredge up from faded memories to add to the article, though you should be warned that text I'm trying to remember is Mircea Eliade's "The Sacred and the Profane".  :D - BanyanTree 02:02, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Stub madness, indeed...

I don't envy you having done all the {Ug-geo-stub}} retagging. Superb job! You may have noticed I recategorised a lot of Uganda stuff today and also created a handful of new articles. You may want to cast your eye over Human rights in Uganda and the contents of the Security forces of Uganda category. TreveXtalk 23:04, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Hi TreveX, I had actually already put the new human rights page on my watchlist before your message. Nice work, especially in how you've been shaping up the core Uganda pages. I'll have to see if I have something to contribute to the new articles.
I've been meaning to go through the new district pages and put them on my watchlist since you made them, but couldn't force myself to do it. So putting the new geo stubs in was a good excuse, and I was also able to find some articles that had not been brought into the geo-stub fold previously, and add a little content from casual knowledge. Mind you - most of my "casual knowledge" seems to relate to conflicts, so I may have just given the impression that that every single district was in the middle of violent upheaval. Ha! In any case, it certainly cleared up the Uganda-stub category page. Cheers, BanyanTree 00:13, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Somali language

Would you be able to weigh in at Talk:Somali language? Your expertise would be most welcome. — mark ✎ 11:55, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

And maybe again, about the use of 'Somaliland'? The horn of Africa is not really my cup of tea ATM :). — mark ✎ 10:45, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
I see that it's been resolved. I'm actually amazed at how many Somalis are editing, and how many of them are nationalists. You may want to take a look at Greater Somalia for a bit of background. They are definitely the most contentious articles I've come across related to Africa. The fact that there are Somali speakers spread out over four countries, and two major separatist movements within Somalia, and the weakest government imaginable, certainly makes for some interesting discussions over what the proper wording for political divisions is.
I'm not much of Horn person myself, surprising give my interests. I find the Somalia conflicts to be mindbogglingly complicated, even compared to the Great Lakes. - BanyanTree 03:56, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] ip loggin

you seem to have some problems with IP logging, I am logged in and still getting flagged by 'you' as posting 'nonsense.' very disturbing (from V8Driver)

That would be irritating. If it persists, you may want to drop by the Village Pump technical section and see if anyone has any ideas on how to fix it. - BanyanTree 13:57, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] IP issues

Uh, I'm still learning here (ie. Wiki), and I have to go out now. I will definitely follow up with Village Pump in order to look in to this a bit further. I have some experience along these lines ... I will say that anonymous IP logging is broken for sure, or there is another (external?) major issue with that, ie. Wiki definitely did not identify my IP address correctly. With regards to me being logged in, that may be due to me having a few anonymous sessions (browser windows on the subjects on which I drifted in) extant even though I had created this user account subsequent as I kind of was interested in potentially creating some content. Thanks!

-tc

[edit] International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

You're welcome! :=) David Cannon 06:09, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Utamakura

I tried to clean up Utamakura. I found your name in its history. I am not a good speaker of English so your copyedit will be appreciated. Cheers, --Larus.r 14:20, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Advice needed

Hello, I have found your greeting on my talk page some time ago and I would like to ask you for an advice. I have been (I think wrongly) accused of spamming by User:Rhobite. I have described my case at Village pump a few days ago in "External links to own site", which I copied to my User_talk:Nicmila, but I have not received any advice from an independent party. Could you please read User_talk:Nicmila and give me your opinion, if I should revert the deletions made by User:Rhobite? While the links lead to my site Law-Ref.org I am convinced that these materials are very relevant to entries in question, and with its indexes provide services not available elsewhere. I do not plan to lead any wars so your decision will be final. --nicmila 07:42, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Response posted on User talk:Nicmila. - BanyanTree 22:50, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Roylee

I'm considering moving my Roylee subpage to Wikipedia:Watch. It would be an interesting case, since it can easily be interpreted as stalking. But I want to get rid of it in my userspace because it needs to be stressed that this is nothing personal. What are your thoughts? Incidentally, I have pointed Roylee once again at some relevant policies and I have made clear that several editors are watching his edits closely, but he hasn't responded yet. — mark ✎ 10:10, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

That is a tough one. On first look, Watch seems to have been set up for a different purpose. Roylee is already listed on the RC patrol page, which is probably the most relevant. I don't think that a userspace page is really objectionable, and I'm sure I've seen tracking of vandals in other people's userspace. Unless you are really uncomfortable, I would leave it where it is and continue referring users who tangle with Roylee on this talk to it. Have you noticed that he's changed his stock cover edit summary to "adding references"?  ;)
Can I also ask you to take a look at Yoweri Museveni and the edit war I'm in with User:Bamboo? He has vastly expanded the article, but has a blatant pro-Obote bias and refuses to substantiate his more extreme statements. My patience is basically exhausted, my wikistress is up, and I've resigned myself to trench warfare at this point. (I've just had a long and bizarre revert war over Koboko with a fan of Amin and my patience was pretty low to begin with.) User:TreveX had managed to calm things, but they seem to have flared up again. Some more third-party input would be much appreciated. Thanks, BanyanTree 16:31, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bamboo

I completely lost patience after User:Bamboo said this:

This is the basis upon which Bamboo and associates will continue uploading the same article on Museveni and will ignore the attempts to censure our contribution on Museveni. (from Talk:Yoweri Museveni#comment)

...so I reported the vandalism at Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress. It appears he'll have to learn the hard way. I'm really annoyed thinking about the number of times I'd wished for a native Ugandan regular contributer and then we end up with him. TreveXtalk 20:18, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

It really is unfortunate. Bamboo did add a bunch of good information that I knew about but hadn't bothered looking up and contributing, and it was certainly worth parsing the initial contribution. However, it is becoming clear that the constant reversions are not just a newcomer's lack of understanding about the nature of Wikipedia, but a conscious decision to ignore the guidelines. I had actually thought for a while that your intervention had settled things... - BanyanTree 20:42, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
He's back, with his usual mix of useful information and POV. As he doesn't seem particularly excited about sourcing his material, is it possible you could find some sources for the claims that M7's family profited from resource looting in DRC? I've labelled several bits of the article as dubious and also a new epic on the talk page. TreveXtalk 18:34, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] History articles on Wikipedia?

Hello,

I’m a historian working at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (http://chnm.gmu.edu/) and we are very interested in digital historical works, including people writing history on Wikipedia. We’d like to talk to people about their experiences working on articles in Wikipedia, in connection with a larger project on the history of the free and open source software movement, and Academic Challenger thought you would be a good person to contact. Would you be willing to talk with us about your involvement, either by phone, a/v chat, IM, or email? This could be as lengthy or brief a conversation as you wish.

Thanks for your consideration.

Joan Fragaszy

jfragasz at gmu dot edu

[edit] Congo Crisis.

Thanks for the compliments....

I am interested in the struggles of the continents of Africa and South America. I guess following progress (and Regressions as well) is a passion of mine. I hope to learn more about these areas as I intend to venture to them one day.

chaz171

[edit] Music templates

Hi BanyanTree,
Thanks for leaving a message on the talk page of 82.32.121.68 - that's my (reasonably static) IP but for some reason I seem to get logged out of Wikipedia at random intervals. It is me who is responsible for the musical templates which have been springing up, and I'm sorry if you feel I am wasting Wikipedia's resources. I had left a message on the Babel talk page which outlines very briefly my ideas, but hadn't had any response so I decided to make a couple of examples to drum up a little interest - I obviously succeeded because you talked to me!

Although I had started with musical instruments, my aim was to produce a system similar to the language one which would enable Wikipedians to highlight their interests and proficiencies in a concise way on their user pages. I don't believe this is entirely unnecessary from an encyclopaedic point of view - it would facilitate communication between users about articles in which they have a particular interest; or perhaps might be able to contribute valuable knowledge. For example, a user tagging articles as stubs, finding one about a composer of music for the violin, might be able to bring up the User_violin category, and find someone with an interest in the instrument who would be happy to expand the article. As a secondary function, these templates would also make it easy for people to find like-minded users, and then see what they'd contributed to - an interesting way of broadening one's horizons by inviting exploration of parts of Wikipedia one might not otherwise have visited. I freely admit that the way I've set out the templates I've made so far is probably non-optimal; if the consensus is that I'm causing an unnecessary mess, I'll happily stop and concentrate my efforts on other aspects of Wikipedia. I planned to stop at the 5 categories I've made so far anyway, and to see what people's reactions were.

I hope my actions won't have landed me in the doghouse - my intentions were honourable and I hope that you and other users will be able to understand what I was trying to achieve. Best regards, Yummifruitbat 01:29, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Hi Yummifruitbat,
Thanks for your message. It clarified your intent, which I was quite confused about. If nobody else has contacted you about it, I would assume they don't see a problem with it and I may be overly concerned. Since you seem to be having some trouble getting feedback, I've posted a message about your templates to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Music, the members of which have the background to give you informed feedback. Hopefully, you'll get some comments. Happy editing! - BanyanTree 02:10, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
Hi again BanyanTree - thanks for your help. As I mentioned on the Wikipedia_talk:Babel page I didn't intend this idea to be confined to musical instruments, but to any major skill or interest. Music just seemed a logical place to start! I haven't received any other comments so far, but if the response from WikiMusic is generally negative, there won't be any hard feelings on my part.
As an aside while I've got the attention of someone important, would you mind having a peek at Douvres-la-Délivrande? It's my first attempt at a proper de-stubbing, and it'd be nice to get some feedback. I'm not sure the infobox about the radar is really on the right page, but it seemed relevant and I didn't have a lot of information on which to base a whole article about the radar itself. I might do a bit of research and make that my next project, though. Thanks again for your help! -- Yummifruitbat 02:34, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

I doubt that I'm "someone important", but I took a look. That's a nice and meaty expansion. I sometimes worry that I add too much information on conflicts to articles, but it's better than leaving it out, and someone else can always come along and add info on other topics. There is a Wuerzburg radar article to which I moved the infobox. That article may need a page move, as well as a check for other needed redirect pages, if you want. More substantively, there appear to be contradictions between the article and box that need to be reconciled. I generally assume that anything World War II related has its own article, but couldn't find one on the Wasserman radar you mentioned. Feel free to drop by if you'd like further feedback. Cheers, - BanyanTree 14:46, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] List of American Military Interventions since 1945

Next time you remove a deletion tag be sure you read the discussion thread before and and justify the reason why you are deleting the deletion tag.

That is all. - Take care. (added by 68.70.147.251)

(copied from 68.70.147.251's talk page) Actually, tagging the article for speedy delete was clearly against Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, and removing it did not require any justification. You are free to put it up for VFD again. - BanyanTree 02:34, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
Just received your response. I see no conflict with the speedy deletion notice, if you read our discussion in the discussion thread rather than aimlessly cherry-picking articles you would have known that. All the same I have no interest in debating the issue, I reported you for vandalism - I'll let the other admins handle the outcome. Goodnight. (added by 68.70.147.251)
The "aimless cherry-picking" you mention is sometimes referred to as "RC patrolling anon edits". Please sign your contributions on talk pages with four tildes (~~~~).
Anyway, the article has already been up at VFD and kept. There is no procedure for reaching "consensus" on a talk page and then slapping a speedy tag on it in the hopes that an admin ignores policy and gets rid of it. If you want it gone, put it up for VFD and argue your case. - BanyanTree 02:53, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
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